Jesse Jackson threatens lawsuit in Little League World Series scandal

originally posted by: kosmicjack
a reply to: butcherguy

It's not like they are older, more practiced kids. Or they used rigged equipment or used dirty tactics during game play. The kids didn't even know there was an issue until it was announced they would be disqualified.

It does smack a bit of sour grapes/sore loser...no one raised any objections during the season, but only after they won.

Also, apply your reasoning to the NFL...

My high school alma mater is a Class A school that went to the State finals for basketball in PA last year. They ended up being beaten horribly by a Charter school that obviously recruited players from across the State of PA. Yeah, they were all the same age, but the pool of talent is the point here. If I put a team together from a school district that has a total enrollment of 463 pupils ( Forbes Road School District ), how much talent do you think is there? Against a team that recruits from across the state? Is that fair?
You really can't compare the NFL to the Little League in this case, IMO. Professional vs amatuer. Adults vs kids. Recruiting vs not.

Please don't say "The kids knew nothing about this".

Wrong

I coached Little League for 25 years. 12-13 year olds know the rules.

Not that they are to blame, they are not.

But, let's not pretend these kids were clueless.

The Coaches, Parents, League Officals, Scorekeepers and Umpires all knew.

This is the oldest most basic Little League Rule. Many people turned their heads.

Shame on all of them.

a reply to: DAVID64

*insert Captain Picard facepalm here*

The Reverend just doesn't get it. I once played representative softball and the rules were made clear when it came to recruiting-no player could play for a region that they weren't registered to-it had nothing to do with race.

When it comes to sport rules is rules and the good reverend needs to understand that instead of flying of on a tangent and pulling the race card. A sixteen year old can't play in the little leagues but you don't see any parents accusing the coach of ageism.

IMO he has no leg to stand on.

Jesse Jackson is a slap to the face of mlk.

Ah give the kids some honorary trophy or something saying good job and take em out to dinner they won’t know the dam difference…
This isn’t exactly congressional committee material...
They didn't win the world series right...the Koreans won?

I watched the minifo on Fox, a little league player stating they didn't cheat.....like that's all it takes. A child's statement. Why should any team/league/race be exempt from the rules? It stands as a violation and it can't be denied.

Once again Mr. Jackson takes it upon himself to dance upon MLK's grave. The team cheated. I know it's heartwrenching to see these kids get their title taken away, but that's how life works. If your team cheats, be it the players, the coaches, the parents, or anyone involved, you run the risk of getting caught and having your trophy/title taken back. I don't see what this has to do with race. Though, leave it to ol' Jesse to come a running when he smells a potential scandal, and most importantly, profit.

a reply to: DAVID64

I'm sure Obama called Jackson or had his handyman--you know, that fellow, Sharpton, that owes us 4.5million?-- call to ask Jackson if he could jump on that case with a bit of race baiting because published picture of him with the team no longer look so good anymore. (They could claim that the photo was photoshopped, that would be the easy way out.)

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: DAVID64

I'm sure Obama called Jackson or had his handyman--you know, that fellow, Sharpton, that owes us 4.5million?-- call to ask Jackson if he could jump on that case with a bit of race baiting because published picture of him with the team no longer look so good anymore. (They could claim that the photo was photoshopped, that would be the easy way out.)

Ah yes.. The old "everything is Obama's fault" argument. Is there anything he's not responsible for? Did he fake the moon landing too? Assassinate JFK? Plan 9/11? Did he shoot Lincoln and blame that poor patsy John Wilkes Booth?

C'mon now. I agree that this whole debacle has nothing to with race, but try to wait at least a week before pointing a finger a Obama and screaming culprit.

I wonder why teams in the NFL get a pass on cheating? I guess when big money is involved you can't let ethics get in the way..Jesse can go pound sand regardless.
I truly do feel bad for the kids..adults in this should go pound sand with Jesse.

I'm still waiting for Jesse Jackson to boycott and take legal action against the NBA for fielding some all-black teams. He's for all races, you know.

Probably because the NFL is a pretty powerful corporation designed to keep its fans in the stands and at home in the armchairs. Win, lose, cheat, it doesn't matter as long as people still watch, buy merchandise, etc. a reply to: vonclod

a reply to: DAVID64

They brought in players from outside the boundaries and that's against the rules, plain and simple.

Not exactly.

Jackie Robinson West requested and had new boundaries set, this is why initially Little League International said that no rules were broken because by the official boundaries that were submitted to Little League International, all the kids were eligible to play on JRW.

So lets go back in time, to the beginning of the Little League season for 2014. The district has the new boundaries and they have been submitted to Little League International, and they give it to all the Little League clubs in their district....all the clubs in the district see the new boundaries and don't say a thing. No one complains, no one says these new boundaries were never approved...they just go along with it and start their seasons.

The kids that fall in the new boundaries of JRW have no choice but to sign up to play on JRW team. If they tried to play on their old team, they would be ineligible because the official boundaries that Little League International has shows their residency inside of JRW boundaries. So the kids play on the only team they are allowed to play on.

Fast forward to the post season tournament play. JRW plays another team within their district and destroys them 42-3...the coach of that team is butt hurt and decides that he is going to try to tear this team down. So, he starts complaining to the media saying that JRW pulled players from outside their district. Remember, he has known, or should have known, about these new boundaries for the entire season and didn't say a word.

Then, JRW wins the national title...and the butt hurt coach then decides to file a complaint with Little League International. Why did he wait all that time? Why did he wait until they won the title to file his complaint? All I can think of is that he is still butt hurt about losing to them.

This guy who said he never approved the new boundaries is either lying (which is what JRW defense is), is incompetent and never even checked the new boundaries until after his team got destroyed by JRW, or he has known about it all along and decided to never file a complaint until after JRW wins the national title.

Either way....it's a jerk thing to do. It's a technicality that no one can prove but somehow this guy has convinced Little League International that the new boundaries were never approved by him, even though there is no official method of this approval. Little League International claims it is the districts responsibility to get everyone's approval when they draw new boundaries, which they said they did. It was most likely a hand vote at a board meeting, because in the Little League world, documentation and official approvals don't really exist.

So Little League International is taking the word of one butt hurt coach saying he never approved the new boundaries over all the other clubs in the district and the district officials themselves. I don't know what "new" evidence they say they found...but I would like to find out.

originally posted by: whyamIhere
Please don't say "The kids knew nothing about this".

Wrong

I coached Little League for 25 years. 12-13 year olds know the rules.

Not that they are to blame, they are not.

But, let's not pretend these kids were clueless.

The Coaches, Parents, League Officals, Scorekeepers and Umpires all knew.

This is the oldest most basic Little League Rule. Many people turned their heads.

Shame on all of them.

Ummm...yes, the kids knew that the boundaries were redrawn. All the teams in the district, except the one complaining, knew the boundaries were redrawn. You have to know what the boundaries are in order to make sure the kids playing in your league are eligible. Little League International knew that the boundaries were redrawn, which is why the first two times they reviewed this complaint they said JRW broke no rules. Everyone knew that the boundaries were redrawn...except the one guy seemed to have remembered he never knew or approved it, only AFTER his team lost 42-3 to JRW.

The kids had zero choice on what team they played on. If they didn't play on JRW, according to Little League Internationals official boundaries that they were using to determine eligibility...those kids would have been ineligible to play on any other team.

So what exactly would you have liked those kids to do? Foresee that a vengeful official from an opposing league was going to file a complaint about the official boundaries after JRW wins the title? Should they have just sat out the season because they were supposed to somehow know that this one guy was going to claim after the season was over that he never knew about the new boundaries (which is either a lie or makes him incompetent to run his league)?

If Little League International wanted to punish someone, it should be the district that JRW was in...not the kids.

Taking the title away from the kids does absolutely nothing but hurt kids that did nothing but follow the rules of their district and played on the team their district told them they had to play on.

a reply to: kruphix

They broke the rules because the proper authorities were not notified.

It was a secret agenda.

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: kruphix

They broke the rules because the proper authorities were not notified.

It was a secret agenda.

The proper authorities in this case is Little League International...and they had the boundaries that showed all the kids on JRW were eligible players.

It was only this one guy who after the fact of losing to JRW said, oh yeah...I never approved those boundaries.

originally posted by: kruphix

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: kruphix

They broke the rules because the proper authorities were not notified.

It was a secret agenda.

The proper authorities in this case is Little League International...and they had the boundaries that showed all the kids on JRW were eligible players.

It was only this one guy who after the fact of losing to JRW said, oh yeah...I never approved those boundaries.

I will do some more reading...

But, your explanation makes no sense.

They interviewed the guy you are saying is butt-hurt.

He didn't say anything like what you are saying.

It's so very simple. If the kids on your All-Star Team were not in your league.

You are cheating. You are loading up your Team. That's what they did (I understand).

I'm sure Jesse Jackson is just the person to get to the bottom of it.

originally posted by: whyamIhere

originally posted by: kruphix

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: kruphix

They broke the rules because the proper authorities were not notified.

It was a secret agenda.

The proper authorities in this case is Little League International...and they had the boundaries that showed all the kids on JRW were eligible players.

It was only this one guy who after the fact of losing to JRW said, oh yeah...I never approved those boundaries.

I will do some more reading...

But, your explanation makes no sense.

They interviewed the guy you are saying is butt-hurt.

He didn't say anything like what you are saying.

It's so very simple. If the kids on your All-Star Team were not in your league.

You are cheating. You are loading up your Team. That's what they did (I understand).

I'm sure Jesse Jackson is just the person to get to the bottom of it.

Jesse Jackson is an attention seeker...I wish he wasn't involved because it draws lines on the issue before people even know what is going on. People that hate Jesse Jackson are going to automatically be against JRW due to the fact that he is involved, and the will pass judgment without knowing the facts.

The official reason given by Little League International is that the new boundaries, that they had themselves to confirm eligibility, doesn't seem like they were approved by all the leagues in the district.

I don't think anyone is saying that the kids on the All Star team never played in the regular season league...they are saying that they should have never been in that league to begin with.

The official complaint is that the redrawn boundaries that Little League International has been using to confirm eligibility wasn't approved by all the leagues in the district.

If you were involved with Little League for 25 years, then you know that those boundaries are looked at by every league in the District at the beginning of the season so they can know at registration which addresses to accept and which they need to direct to a different league.

But somehow this guy either didn't look at the new boundaries, which makes him incompetent to run his own league, or he was OK with the boundaries until after JRW beat his team 42-3.

I don't think it is hard to see that this is nothing more than sour grapes and vengefulness.

a reply to: kruphix

I wish this didn't happen to these kids.

I know what you are saying. The new director did not sign off on the new boundaries.

If that is all it is. Seems a little late to complain.

That's not what I understood happened.

The guy is saying after they completed league play.

After the local District rounds. The winning team took some players from other Leagues.

I am looking for Little Leagues Statement...I wish I was wrong. They Cheated...

ESPN.Com

originally posted by: kosmicjack
Does it matter that the kids had nothing to do with this but will face the ultimate penalty? Does it matter that no one told the parents or kids that there was a specific boundary? Does it matter that these kids actually did win and beat the other team?

No deflated balls.

Seems crazy that perennial cheaters, the New England Patriots, get to keep their Lombardi Trophy but these kids have to give theirs back.

The coach should be banned from Little League for life. He knew the parameters but failed to communicate it to the kids and parents.

Of course it matters, the kids should feel inside like they won by cheating, which they did, a whole team of ringers from a large area AND EVERYONE KNEW IT.

I could not get nearly as much joy out of a victory that was had by CHEATING, and KICKING OFF the weaker players on my team, please do not tell me every kid here did not know it.